Seeking
to enhance tree cover, benefit the environment and generate future income,
Kashmiris turned out en masse this spring to help state authorities plant trees
across the state.

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Forest
Department workers plant saplings in a north Kashmir forest. In a bid to
enhance tree cover and develop forests, lakhs of saplings were planted from
March to mid-June in Kashmir forests.

According
to Munshi Iqbal, Divisional Forest Officer, Kamraj division, some 600,000
saplings, mostly belonging to the conifer species, were planted in the Kupwara
district alone during the planting campaign, which ran from March to mid-June. The
effort was part of a longer-term plan, Iqbal indicated. People have realised
the importance of forests to mankind and support the department in developing
this natural resource," he added.

Environmentalists
say the plants offer more than beauty."Trees
are important for sustenance of life on earth. "I planted about 45
saplings including some apple and walnut this year," Mohammad Ashraf Malik
40, a Kupwara farmer, told Khabar.

Another
nursery owned said: "I sold about 4,000 plants, mostly walnut and apple
from March to April," he said.

"There
was a great demand for apple and cherry plants this year. The horticulture
department provided me plants on subsidized rates," another ensthusiastic
planter added.

"Apple
alone generates tens of crores of rupees every season for the fruit
growers," Fayaz Ahmad Malik, president of Fruit Mandi in Sopore, told
Khabar.

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